Don't Eat That, Elmer, That's Horse [Finch]!

There's been some controversy about a free distribution of On the Origin of Species with a "special" introduction; in any case, I gladly note the existence of a counterpoint group, "Don't Diss Darwin," with the tongue–in–cheek motto "noli fringillidas edere!" I had to look up the middle word, which as it turns out is the scientific Latin term for the family of finches, of course. The Classical form on which it's based is fringilla, -ae which the OLD tells me means "a song-bird, perhaps the chaffinch," attested in Varro and Festus (usually a bad sign), and Martial in a form fringillus, cf. Greek φρυγίλος. This latter occurs once in Classical Greek—where else?—the Birds of Aristophanes, 763, where it gets trotted out for a pun with Φρὺξ.

For what it's worth, there was a Cistercian monastery of S. Angelo in Fringillis (or Frigido) founded in Calabria in 1220, as well as a Fringilla: some tales in verse of 1895 by Richard Doddridge Blackmore (famous today for his novel Lorna Doone), with the doddgy lines quorsum haec? non potui qualem / Philomela querelam; sed / fringilla velut pipitabunda vagor adorning the frontispiece. The illustrations are passerable, but the verse, oh, the verse! The one snippet ought to be enough; the rest is available freely at Google Books:

God is with us ; He shall speed us ;
Or (if this vile crew impede us)
Let some light into their brain,
By the sword of Tubal Cain.
-Lita of the Nile, Part I, XII

All that said, Wikipedia informs me that Darwin's finches are now placed in the tanager family of Thraupidae rather than the true finch family, Fringillidae. θραυπίς occurs only in Aristotle History of Animals 592b30 and refers to a small bird. Such is the nature of scientific Latin. So noli fringillas edere, noli thraupidas edere, noli θραυπίδας edere, as you like.

Heroes and villains, dogs and goats

The Museo Civico Archeologico di Fara in Sabina [excellent website] has mounted an exhibit entitled "Un Re, un Guerriero, un Eroe | La tomba 36 della necropoli sabina di Eretum." The three-chambered Tomb 36 of the Colle del Forno necropolis, discovered in 2005, contained the burial of a Sabine potentate of the late 6th c. BCE, his ashes deposited in a wooden box draped with a gold-embroidered cloth, along with his arms, bronze cauldrons, a terracotta throne, a chariot and sacrificed horses. It's certainly worth noting here that the contents of another rich tomb of the same necropolis, Tomb XI [another excellent website], dating to the early 7th c. BCE, are currently on display in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen, having been looted in the 1970s and passed through the hands of the infamous Robert Hecht [NYTimes (16/3/2009); Looting Matters (17/3/09); Iconoclasm (18/5/09); Iconoclasm (18/10/09)].

Apropos of the previous post, a 4th-3rd c. BCE Greek necropolis was discovered in the territory of Castellaneta (Ta), unfortunately already looted [Corriere del Mezzogiorno; AGI]

Speaking of looting, SafeCorner reports on the "L'Arma per L'Arte 1969-2009" exhibit at Castel Sant'Angelo, celebrating 40 years of the Comando Carabinieri per la Tutela Patrimonio Culturale.

Cultural patrimony laws got you down? Now you can get your very own legal memento of a trip to Italy-- adopt a stray dog from Pompeii, via the "(C)Ave Canem" project [News in English; official Italian site].

....and, the mostly* gratuitous link of the day:
Extinct Goat Tried out Reptilian, Cold-Blooded Living

*(it has to do with adapting to a small Mediterranean island -- Majorca, in this case)

'Beyond Magna Graecia' conference follow-up

This past weekend I was in Cincinnati for the Semple Symposium "Beyond Magna Graecia: New Developments in South Italian Archaeology. The Contexts of Apulian and Lucanian Pottery." Turnout was quite frankly higher than I'd been expecting, possibly somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 -- the photo below, taken Friday around midday, doesn't really do it justice. As usual, it was good to catch up with a couple of friends and meet others for the first time.

So, have new developments taken us 'beyond Magna Graecia'? There was plenty of evidence on hand for a widespread corrective necessary in this A.T. period (After Trendall), to put South Italian Red Figure back into its contexts (Trendall frequently omitted such information in his publications, even when it was certainly known). Some of Trendall's attributions were questioned, painters divided and joined, but one of the take-aways was to what an extent the field still relies on his monumental works. In any case, those contexts turn out more often than not to be non-Greek. Moving from Messapia, up to Daunia, and then back through Peucetia, the papers provided a sensitive analysis of the way Red Figure ceramics were used and produced by both non-Greek and Greek inhabitants of Apulia, responding to local needs and customs.

Ted Robinson speaks on archaeometric analysis.

The art historical element, strong in traditional Anglophone scholarship on South Italy, was present at the conference, but it was clear that no one would today dispense with the archaeological context of the artifact class in question. Ted Robinson's work on archaeometric analysis is certainly a step in the right direction, and the wider exposure of information from ongoing excavations in Italy is welcome. That the work of Italian researchers is not more widely known is a problem, and one that is only part due to the difficulty of obtaining foreign publications. I hope that the published proceedings will do their part to lead a new generation of American students to learn Italian -- honestly, if one has already learned Latin and French, it shouldn't be that difficult!

Several speakers emphasized the continued importance of Taranto, so as not to throw the baby out with the Greek bathwater. But, despite some tantalizing new data, there is still no certainly clinching evidence of Red Figure production at Taranto, at least not of the sort found at Metaponto, likely though it may be.

The conference was organized with the express intent of publishing proceedings as an up-to-date state-of-the-field in English; the last few Semple Symposia have had an average of three years from lectern to library, so look for a volume in 2012, maybe -- perfect vacation reading for the apocalypse?

Thanks to all at Cincinnati.

Magazine online: ArcheoMolise

The Centro Europeo di Ricerche Preistoriche in Isernia (Molise) is hosting the new magazine ArcheoMolise, whose issues now number three. Available here in .rar and .zip formats, which unpack into pdfs. The journal focuses on the archaeology of Molise, with forays into Colombia, and its chronological scope ranges from the Paleolithic through the present day, as can be seen from the contents:

(Aprile/Giugno 2009, No. 0 - Anno I):
- Antonella Minelli et al., 'Isernia La Pineta. Il sito preistorico alla luce delle recenti acquisizioni'
- Ettore Rufo, '40.000 anni fa a Rocchetta a Volturno. Gli artigiani neandertaliani di Grotta Reali'
- Chiara Santone, 'Il ripostiglio di Vinchiaturo. Alcune osservazioni.'
- Sandra Guglielmi & Petronilla Crocco, 'La necropoli di Ripatagliata. Studio antropologico dei resti scheletrici umani rinvenuti a Guglionesi'
- Karicla Scarcella, 'Il carnevale di Cercepiccola. Mesi, stagioni e drammi carnascialeschi'
- Michele Fratino, 'La catapulta sannitica di Casalbordino'


(Giulio/Settembre 2009, No. 1 - Anno I):
- Marta Arzarello et al., 'I bifacciali di Monteroduni. Un sito acheuleano di occupazione?'
- Michele Raddi, 'L'alta valle del Volturno. Insediamenti tardo antichi e medioevali'
- Walter Santoro, 'S. Croce di Sepino. Un Eigenkloster della valle del Moschiaturo'
- Luca D'Alessandro, 'Le maitunat' di Gambatesa. Una tradizione secolare'
- Brunella Muttillo, 'Alla riscoperta di El Dorado. La missione archeologica molisana in Colombia'
- Andrea Lonardelli, 'Il costume funerario femminile nel Molise preromano. I casi di Termoli, Guglionesi, Larino, San Giuliano di Puglia, Pozzilli e Gildone'


(Ottobre/Dicembre 2009, No. 2 - Anno I):
- Lorenzo Quilici, 'Il castello di Gerione presso Casacalenda, da Annibale agli Angioini'
- Adriano LaRegina, 'Ritratto di Caligola, poi di Augusto, dal Molise'
- Giovanna Falasca, 'San Giuliano del Sannio, alla ricerca delle origini storiche'
- Gabriella Di Rocco, 'Insediamenti fortificati del Molise occidentale, tra alto e basso Medioevo'
- Alessandro Testa, 'La Maschera del Cervo a Castelnuovo al Volturno, breve introduzione alla storia ed alle interpretazioni di una pantomima tradizionale'
- Roberta Venditto, 'Un alabastro inglese nel Regno di Napoli. Il caso del polittico del museo archeologico di Venafro'



(I'll be in Cincinnati for the "Beyond Magna Graecia" conference from tomorrow, Thursday, through Saturday, November 12 - 14. The organizers have helpfully put up a selection of background readings for the conference topic here.)

Varia for October 4, 2009

In the Journals:
The latest issue (113.4) of the American Journal of Archaeology is available online, including:
-Elizabeth A. Meyer on "Writing Paraphernalia, Tablets, and Muses in Campanian Wall Painting" (abstract);
-Jeffrey Becker, Marcello Mogetto, and Nicola Terrenato uncover "A New Plan for an Ancient Italian City: Gabii Revealed" (abstract);
-John Oakley reviews the past decade in "Greek Vase Painting" (abstract);
-Bruce Hitchner's review article "Roman Republican Imperialism in Italy and the West" (link);
-and reviews of Archaeology and History in Sardinia from the Stone Age to the Middle Ages and Il Santuario dei Palici: Un centro di culto nella Valle del Margi.

Eric Poehler reviews Vedia Izzet, The Archaeology of Etruscan Society, in Rasenna 2.1 (2009).

This is a few years old, but I've just now run across it: M. Rubini, "A case of cranial trepanation in a Roman necropolis (Cassino, Italy, 3^rd century BC)," International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 18.1 (2007): 95-99 (Abstract).

Banditry:
Returns to Italy of an Italian-American's collection of Medieval and later material from the Mezzogiorno (link).

The Carabinieri busted a wineshop in Ardea and turned up 500 pieces, including a 3rd c. BCE urn, a marble statue of a "Persian" Artemis, and Archaic Latial votive material (link).

Conferences:
Via David Meadows at RogueClassicism, I note that the conference entitled "Moisa Epichorios: Regional Music and Musical Regions" (Ravenna 1-3 October 2009) had a session on "Ancient Italy: Magna Grecia and Etruria":

Antonella Provenza (Palermo) – The paean and Apollo’s cult in Magna Graecia: music therapy among the Early Pythagoreans
Marina F.A. Martelli (Milan) – L’italica armonia di Senocrate di Locri
Carolyn Bowyer (London) – Etruscan trumpets

Posters:
Emiliano Li Castro (Viterbo) – Il cuore nascosto di Diòniso
Angela Bellia (Palermo) – Mito, musica e rito nelle raffigurazioni dei pinakes del Persephoneion di Locri Epizefirii (VI – V sec. a.C.)
Anna Di Giglio (Foggia) – Strumenti a percussione nel mondo greco e magno greco: testimonianze letterarie e iconografiche
Giancarlo Germanà (Syracuse) – Gli dèi, gli uomini e la musica: analisi di un tema iconografico nelle importazioni attiche a Gela tra il VI ed il V secolo a.C.

Also from RogueClassicism, I note that the conference "OIKOS FAMILIA The Family in Antiquity: Framing the discipline in the 21st Century" (Gothenburg, 5-7 November 2009) will have a session on "Etruscan and Pre-Roman Family":

Key note addres: Marjatta Neilsen: Etruscan familes – the dead and the living
Jenny Högström Berntson: Women, Children and Votives in Magna Graecia
Elisa Perego: Iron Age and early Roman Veneto
Rafael Scopacasa: Familial Segregation and Communal Drinking in Ancient Appenine Italy

Umbrian Roundup

The XXVII Convegno di Studi Etruschi ed Italici will run from October 27 to 31 in Perugia, Gubbio, and Urbino, on the topic 'Gli Umbri in età preromana'. More information, and the program (pdf).

Back in the beginning of September, in Perugia, a Roman kiln for roof-tiles was discovered. (link)

News from the Soprintendenza for Umbria:
- 2nd century CE Roman tombs discovered at Gubbio (link).
- The Museo Archeologico in Orvieto is revamping its exhibits to display little-known and unpublished material from the Crocifisso del Tufo necropolis, and by the end of autumn will have an area devoted to research on the Campo della Fiera (link).
- In Perugia, the exhibit "Mira et Magica," which focuses on ancient inscribed gems, runs from September 25 to December 31, 2009 (link).
- In Spoleto, the Archaeological Museum has opened a second new gallery, "Dal Municipio all'età Imperiale" (link).
- The Museo Civico in Todi has opened a new display of local stone artifacts dating from antiquity to the present day, including a sundial and an Augustan altar (link).

September 13, 2009

(I'm more or less settled in here at Michigan; now that I've got enough work to need distracting from, blogging will continue...)

From a journal you might not follow (I don't): Mangone et al., "Technological features of 'gnathia' pottery." X-Ray Spectrometry 38.5 (2009), 386-393 [abstract].

The Università degli Studi di Lecce has digitized Studi di Antichità and four monographs published by the Dipartimento di Beni Culturali dell'Università di Lecce - Settore Storico-Archeologico, available here (once you've clicked on the number you want, you have to click on "Contents..." in the left-hand column). Also possibly of interest: Gli Album del Centro di Studi Papirologici, Papyrologica Lupiensia and Kronos; you can see the full list of scanned journals and monographs here (don't miss the E-Prints down at the bottom of the page).

We are looking forward to Michael Weiss' forthcoming (2009) books Language and Ritual in Sabellic Italy (Leiden: Brill) and Outline of the Historical and Comparative Grammar of Latin (Ann Arbor: Beech Stave). His 2009 article "Umbrian erus" is available as a pdf on his website (above).

As for books that have already come out: Josh Katz (favorably) reviews Rex Wallace, The Sabellic languages of ancient Italy (2007) in Language 85.2 (June 2009), 490-492. Katz writes, "W rightly reminds us that the corpora of ‘dead languages’ are not always closed. It is exciting when a new inscription turns up..."

...and there are, apparently, a few new inscriptions, published by Adolfo Zavaroni and Giancarlo Sani, "Iscrizioni nord-umbre del bellum sociale nella Valle di Ospitale: prime indicazioni." Klio 91.1 (June 2009), 69-103. I think I will have more to say about this article and these inscriptions, but for now I'll simply copy the summary since it doesn't appear to be publicly available:

In two sites of the Valle di Ospitale (Modena province, near the border between Aemilia and Etruria) many inscriptions written on rocks during the bellum sociale (90–89 B. C.) by rebels against Rome have recently come to light. The rebels define themselves as Umbrians, but their dialect has several particularities which drive us to distinguish it from the Umbrian of the Iguvinian Tables. The alphabet contains some special letters, but it is above all the frequent use of ligatures that characterizes these inscriptions and makes their reading often difficult. Most of them contain exhortations to revolt against Rome and form an Umbrian League. A few writings have an erotic content; others are illuminating on the main gods worshipped by the rebels. Here we present a selection of the inscriptions whose reading is more easy.

[!!!]


(The leppard in the picture above is found on Gnathia-style cup from Rudiae, now in the Museo Archeologico Provinciale 'S. Castromediano' in Lecce. )

Conference: Beyond Magna Graecia

Beyond Magna Graecia:
New Developments in South Italian Archaeology
The Contexts of Apulian and Lucanian Pottery

November 12-14, 2009,
University of Cincinnati
A Semple Symposium

---

(Or, "Apulian Red Figure: more than just a pretty vase"...?)

Free and open to the public. More info at the UC site

From the MiBAC Newsletter of 31 July 2009

Interesting things as always in the weekly update from the (still monstrously-named) Ministero per i Beni e le Attivita' Culturale (you can sign-up here; back-issues here, though not up-to-date):


The waves of the Mediterranean exposed the grave of a 'warrior' of the 3rd millennium BCE, ten meters from the shore, within the military zone at Torre Astura in Lazio. The contents of the grave, which find their comparanda in the Gaudo facies of the Italian Copper Age, include six ceramic vessels, a flint arrowhead, two flint dagger blades, and one human skeleton. The photo caption claims that he was killed by an arrow in the side, but I find no mention of this elsewhere. The press release, with excellent photos, is here; see the "Scheda tecnica, dettaglio" (.doc) for more technical details.

The first phase of restoration of the Herculaneum boat is complete, allowing for public viewing (Saturday and Sunday, 10:00-12:30 and 14:00-17:00, at no additional cost). The press release, again with photos, is here.

There's a new exhibition called Santuario di Ercole Vincitore. Il cantiere, lo scavo, le meraviglie ("Sanctuary of Hercules Victor. The site, the excavation, the wonders") at the sanctuary of that name in Tivoli. It will run from October of 2009 until February 2010, open every Saturday except December 26 from 10:30 - 13:00, free of charge. Info here.

La Religiosità nella locride tra passato e presente ("Religiosity in the Locride between past and present") is the title of a new exhibition in the Palazzo Nieddu in Locri. The exhibit, which covers the 4th century BCE to the 20th century CE, runs from July 31 to August 30, 2009.

Ferragosto

Spending a few days taking it slow in sweltering Rome... the Museo Nazionale Romano in the Palazzo Massimo just gets better every time I go back. The substantial remains of the "Scopri il Massimo" exhibit (18 December 2008 - 7 June 2009) are worth a look -- the paintings from the Columbarium in the Villa Pamphilj are wonderful (including the fisherman above).

First time I've seen the Warrior of Lanuvium's belt on display in the Baths of Diocletian (though it could have been out for years for all I know):

The Etruscan museum at the Villa Giulia is due to (re)open about a dozen galleries this fall [I happened to read this in a newspaper and failed to note the details].

In other news: Confiscation of smuggled antiquities in Calabria. [ANSA]

Update from Lecce (with pictures of Arpino)

"Cyclopean" Gate, Civitavecchia, Arpino

The hotel here in Lecce has free internet in the room, so here's a bit of an update. Having wrapped up work at Mt. Lykaion (site & blog) and spent a delightful but all-too-brief time in Athens, I made my way to Rome on the 17th of July. Since then a whirlwind of visits to Gabii, Arpino (see above and below), Paestum, Potenza, Matera, and now Lecce. Many more pictures will follow, as will discussion. For now, just these.

The medieval tower in Civitavecchia, Arpino.

The big news of the day has to do with Silvio Berlusconi and his recent scandals. Beyond the sex tapes, one recording has a man alleged to be Mr. Berlusconi talking about 30 Phoenician tombs found on the grounds of his private villa in Sardinia. The tombs have not been reported to the Ministry of Culture, as required by Italian law; this could bring a penalty of a year in jail...
(BBC; Guardian; L'Espresso: audio, transcription, and discussion). ...and I see David Meadows has fuller discussion at Rogueclassicism (of course).